


these little moments

by melanoradrood



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Pre-Relationship, Rebelcaptain Secret Santa, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 06:44:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17259488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melanoradrood/pseuds/melanoradrood
Summary: A rebelcaptain secret santa gift for ohbeeone/februarysong.They sit in silence together, the only sound the clicking of his fingers on his keyboard, and her sipping at her coffee.





	these little moments

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FebruarySong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FebruarySong/gifts).



> I'm so sorry this is so late - my prompt was slice of life, from ohbeeone/februarysong. I went with a college au, just a slice in their pre-relationship lives!

Cassian’s alarm goes off first.

In a house with six total people, Cassian has learned over the years that getting up first is a requirement to his own peace of mine. Getting up first means that he has first access to the only bathroom in the house. Getting up first means that he can make the coffee how he likes it, and enjoy a second cup before anyone else appears. Getting up first means that he can sit in peace at the table, reviewing the latest additions to his thesis that he had been working on late into the night before.

He’s not the first one that will leave the house that he shares with the rest of his friends, but is instead the last, but getting up first means that he gets to enjoy the best things… like time with Jyn.

Jyn is always the second to rise, despite the fact that she is not a morning person. Professor Krennic apparently despises her for some unknown reason that Jyn refuses to share, which means that she teaches his eight am Monday Wednesday Friday History 101, and his seven-thirty Tuesday Thursday History 102. She doesn’t hog the bathroom like Bodhi does, and showers the night before, so her routine is fast and easy, but she does require time to wake up, and at least two cups of coffee, before she can leave for class.

Cassian always makes enough for both of them, so that when Jyn comes down the steps from her attic bedroom, there’s a cup waiting for her at the table.

She says nothing, eyes still half closed as she sinks into her seat beside him, and it’s not until she’s halfway into the cup that she finally even acknowledges his presence, her head simple falling to the side. He knows that her eyes are open, reading over the last two paragraphs that he is working on, but she says nothing, just lets out a sigh.

They sit in silence together, the only sound the clicking of his fingers on his keyboard, and her sipping at her coffee.

Bodhi stumbles downstairs just as Jyn finishes filling up her second cup, and his as well, which means that Bodhi can make coffee that everyone else in the house considers to be some sort of sludge. Not even Jyn can stand to drink it, which is absurd given that Jyn will drink just about anything put in front of her if it contains alcohol or caffeine, including what Han Solo considers to be “The Falcon Loco”. Bodhi just gives a grunt, makes his coffee, then disappears back upstairs to take over the bathroom for the next hour.

It’s just Jyn and Cassian again, and when Jyn sits back down beside him, Cassian looks to her, their eyes locking for a brief moment.

“What do you think?”

He already knows what she’ll say - that his late night ramblings are better than anything he puts on paper this early in the morning, but mornings are good for editing, and for bulleting, and he has to do something in the mornings, other than trying to steal a glance at her.

She’s always beautiful in the mornings, the way that her eyes slowly open, how she shifts from exhausted to alert, the way that her lips curl into a smile when he says good bye,.. Her smile is an addiction he can’t quit. That smile, the one just for him, is the reason he gets up this early.

“It’s not terrible,” she says with a smirk, and her head settles back onto his shoulder - he turns his head just in time, so that his lips don’t brush against her skin, despite the fact that he wishes he could, that he was that privileged. 

“But you’ve read better?” he offers, waiting for the other foot to drop.

“You already know what I’m going to say, so why even ask?” she says with a hum, and he can tell, for just a moment, that her eyes are closed, that she’s utterly relaxed against him.

He imagines them sitting on the couch, side by side, her head on his shoulder, his arm around her. That dream disappears as soon as she sits up to sip another sip of his coffee, and he shuts his laptop, not offering a response.

“Write like you speak,” Jyn says, and her eyes are closed, nose flaring slightly as she breathes in her coffee. “Stop trying to write like someone you’re not.”

He doesn’t offer a response, but instead picks up his own cup of coffee. Her eyes open as she turns her head to look at him, and he can tell that, behind her cup, there’s a smile. He smiles back, and they sit there in silence for a few minutes longer, before she inevitably has to get up, to leave, to go about her day.

...

When Cassian gets home from his last class, he’s pleased to see that the house is quiet. His best guess tells him that Chirrut and Baze are at a poetry slam or some other while Kay is in the Robotics lab… being robotic. There’s no telling where Bodhi is, although all of the swiping he had been doing on Tinder the night before might be a clue. That means it’s just Jyn left, and she’s sitting on the couch, two mugs sitting on the coffee table in front of her.

He has to pause when he sees that in the living room - normally, Jyn would be sitting at the kitchen table to work, her laptop in the middle, with a mountain of papers and textbooks and pens surrounding her, like a nest she had buried herself into. Seeing her on the couch…

She has her laptop with her, and he can see her phone on the table, but otherwise, she looks to not be working on anything, simply scrolling through Social Media.

“Taking the night off from grading papers?” he asks, and his bag drops into the chair by the door, a serious thud reminding him that he has english papers to grade himself.

“Mmm, we both are. I had a bit of inspiration, and I want to test it out.”

This isn’t like normal - normally, he would come home and organize her piles while she moans at him about Krennic and her students and her research. Normally, he would refill her cup, and fill his while he’s at it, but he can see now that both cups are full of tea. Normally…. Normally there was a table between them, but tonight, it’s just Jyn on a couch, her feet shifting to be propped up on the coffee table, and he can do nothing other than sit down beside her, his legs kicking up as well as he looks over at her.

“What are we testing out?” he asks, and he waits to see some hint that she’s up to trouble, up to no good, that familiar glint in her eyes that tells him they’re getting into something… instead, her eyes look bright, and then there’s a slight blush on her cheeks.

Jyn Erso is not the type of girl to blush, and he almost wonders if it’s makeup… except that Jyn also doesn’t wear makeup.

None of this is normal, and Cassian doesn’t know how to proceed.

“You’re going to talk,” she says, and she’s shifting on the couch, turning so that her back is against the armrest, and her legs are laying along the couch. Before he even realizes it, her feet are in his lap, and he’s leaning back, as though all of this is natural, normal. “And I’m going to type.”

His eyebrow raises slightly, and he waits for her to continue… except that she’s staring at him expectantly, and he’s still not sure where this is leading.

“And what am I to talk about?” he finally asks, and her eyes roll before she answers.

“Your paper. You go on for hours about it, telling me about some source or another, even quoting them, reading things to me, and then when you try to write… it falls flat. So, just tell me about your theory. Tell me what you want to write about. And… I’ll just type it out.”

He stares at her for far too long, processing what she’s saying, when he finally blinks and sucks in a breath. It’s a theory, sure, an idea that might work, but what he has to say, sometimes, he doesn’t even believe it’s worth listening to. He can’t sound like himself, he can’t… but Jyn listens. Jyn always listens, even when she’s half asleep, always look at him with her knowing eyes, and she always seems to know.

He wants to tell her why it’s a bad idea, wants to tell her all the reasons that what he says won’t make sense, wants to make excuses, wants to push this aside, push away… 

Instead, he opens his mouth, and talks.

When he’s unable to say anything more, Jyn looks tired in a weird way, her eyes heavy, her shoulders sagging slightly, but there’s a smile on her lips, one that he suspects more and more is just for him. Her fingers had flown across the keyboard, and it was a good thing he spoke slowly at times, paused naturally in conversation, because otherwise, she wouldn’t have kept up.

He’s not even sure what in all he had said, and he wants to know, to read, to hear her opinions, but she closes her laptop, and sets it on the table beside her.

“Cassian, you’re…”

He knows it can’t be bad, not with that smile, not with the way that her eyes light up when she looks at him, but he braces himself all the same.

“What? Did I not sound like myself? Don’t tell me I kept repeating myself.”

“You’re brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.”

The words come out on a breath, and Cassian sucks in one of his own, frozen in the moment. He’s not sure how to respond to that, because he knows she considers him to be smart, but brilliant? And the way she says it?

She shifts forward from where she’s sitting on the other side of the couch, her feet coming out of his lap, and when she finishes moving, she’s sitting on her feet, knees bent and pressing into the side of his leg. His torso twists to face her, and her cheeks are pink, that blush again… except, at this distance, Cassian can see her freckles, knows that there’s nothing on her skin.

She’s blushing, blushing for him.

“You think I’m brilliant?” he breathes out, and he doesn’t know why - he struggles for the right word, he repeats himself because he can’t ever find the right thing to say, he doesn’t have the education she does - she’s the one that’s brilliant, the way that when she speaks, it means something, how she knows so much about seemingly everything, how she believes in what she says… he doesn’t believe in himself, sometimes, but he believes in her.

If she believes he’s brilliant, then he actually might be.

She doesn’t say anything, but her eyes flick over his face, searching for the right words, searching for something. His tongue flicks over his lips, looking for the right thing to say, but he can’t come up with anything - he’s still in wonder of her.

Her lips part, ready to speak, and then they close - faster than he can imagine, than he can believe, she leans forward, and her lips press to his cheek. He freezes at the touch of her lips, doesn’t move, doesn’t even breathe as she pulls away, and his eyes are wide open, wide in shock. He can feel his cheeks on fire, and Jyn…

There’s a shy smile, when she pulls away, curling in the corner of her lips, and she gives a nod.

“I do.”

He’s dumbfounded, unable to even process what she just said, and stupidly repeats her, unable to say anything else. “You do, what?”

She laughs as she pulls away, and her body shifts to go and grab her cup off the coffee table, her body turning so that she’s facing the tv, not even looking at him.

“I think you’re brilliant… and when we read through what I typed tonight, you’ll start to believe it.”

She settles against him, her head almost on his shoulder, and she takes a cup of her tea before reaching forward to grab the remote. She doesn’t look at him again, but all he can do is look at her, eyes still wide.

Something comes onto the television, and he’s not seeing it or hearing it, only her, and he can’t look away. There’s a smile on her lips again, more of a blush, and…

Nothing about this is normal. They’re not the sort of people that don’t work on their research every evening, late into the night. They’re not the sort of people that just watch random shows, not when it’s just the two of them, without someone else, primarily Bodhi or Chirrut, forcing them to sit down and relax.

But, in the still of the house, with only her beside him…

Cassian shifts a little, his legs switching places on the coffee table, and his arm goes around her shoulders. Jyn stiffens for a breath, before he can even try to pull away, and then she relaxes into his side.

None of this is routine… but Cassian doesn’t mind. 

And before he turns his head to look at the screen, his lips brush her temple, a whisper of a kiss…

He can feel her smile, and smiles in response.

  



End file.
